With their nation's football hooligans spotlighted after a string of high-profile incidents, Polish authorities on Tuesday launched a new legal crackdown aimed at stemming trouble at Euro 2012. "This sporting event cannot be dominated by aggression, by hooligans and thugs," Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski told reporters as he presented a raft of measures to be in place in time for the European championships.
A key plank is fast-track handling of troublemakers, with special rooms being set up in stadiums with video links to courthouses from which judges will try the defendants. The system was used at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver last year, Kwiatkowski noted. In addition, hooligans who have already been banned from Poland's stadiums face electronic tagging.
Around 1,800 people are currently serving hooliganism-related stadium bans in Poland, a nation of 38 million. They will be jailed right away if they breach their tag conditions. Kwiatkowski also said sentences for bomb-hoaxers would be beefed up to eight years from the current six months. The measures will be put to parliament in May.
The 16-nation, quadrennial football showcase kicks off in Warsaw on June 8, 2012 and ends with the final on July 1 in Kiev, capital of co-host Ukraine. Longstanding concerns over hooligans heightened after Poland fans clashed with security forces at an away friendly against Lithuania on March 25. "On the hooligan side we are concerned, but I know the Polish government is also concerned," Martin Kallen, UEFA's Euro chief, said last week.
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